“We have the best tablet at any price,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos told AllThingsD in an interview. “Last year, we wanted to build the best tablet at a certain price. And, this year, we wanted to build the best tablet at any price. Take away the price and it’s still the best tablet. It also happens to be only $499.”

Bezos was referring to the company’s new 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD with 4G LTE, which provides users with 250MB of LTE data each month for a shockingly low $49.99 per year. And in stating that the new slate is the “best tablet at any price,” the message is clear: Bezos says his new flagship tablet is better than Apple’s (AAPL) iPad.